I Ended Up Snatching a Marriage With the Male Lead! - Chapter 71

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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I’d gone and married the male lead in a contract marriage.
71

‘Wait, hold on.’
Did that mean he’d seen her tearing her hair out here alone?
Emilia’s ears flushed red in embarrassment almost instantly.
“H-how did you know about that?”
“I could see you from the Office.”
At Kaiden’s casual reply, Emilia hurried to protest.
“But still! Most people don’t remember things like that, do they?”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. That’s how it is.”
Emilia mumbled, burying her face in her hands.
“…Don’t go remembering every little thing like that.”
At her words, displeasure flickered across Kaiden’s expression.
“I’m not trying to remember it deliberately. I just happened to notice.”
“Still…”
Of course, he’d only spotted her in the Garden because his gaze had drifted from the study window by chance.
And the fact that he remembered it wasn’t, as Kaiden said, particularly meaningful—it was simply a matter of his good memory.
‘But why am I so embarrassed?’
Thinking about it, it wasn’t as if she’d been caught in some shameful act.
She’d simply learned that he knew of a habit she wasn’t even conscious of.
Yet heat crept into her cheeks all the same.
“Phew.”
Emilia lowered her hands from her face and took a breath, trying hard to steady herself.
“Well, it’s not related to the tea party, but I did have something to discuss when the Duke returns.”
She’d already been meaning to tell Kaiden about Lucas when he came back.
“Is that so?”
With that, Kaiden braced her shoulders and knees, then lifted her into his arms.
“…What is this?”
“You said you had something to discuss.”
“Yes?”
“You’ve apparently been out here quite long. Let’s go inside and talk.”
At that, Emilia fell silent for a moment.
How did he even know she’d been out here for so long?
‘More than that…’
His action was so fluid and natural that Emilia asked in bewilderment,
“But why do we have to go in like this?”
“I heard it said: do not let dirt touch the lady’s feet.”
Emilia glanced down at her Slippers, which sat forlorn beneath the bench.
“But my Slippers are right there under the bench.”
To that, Kaiden replied nonchalantly,
“Is that so? The Garden was dark—I didn’t see them.”
“That makes no sense.”
Emilia let out a small, deflated laugh.
“Where on earth did you hear something like that?”
The saying about not letting dirt touch a lady’s feet was a metaphorical expression among the Empire’s common folk, meaning not to trouble the lady.
It wasn’t something a man of his high noble rank should have known.
“…It just came to me somehow.”
Kaiden furrowed his brow, murmuring.
It seemed as though some unpleasant memory had surfaced.
Regardless, Emilia found him absurd—a man who took such words at face value and acted on them immediately.
Yet on the other hand, she couldn’t help feeling a little envious of the future lady who would receive such tenderness.
‘…’
Overcome by a sense of bashfulness, Emilia buried her face in his embrace.
Suddenly, his steps halted.
Emilia lifted her forehead with a puzzled expression. She could see his Adam’s apple move once, quite noticeably.
As Emilia tried to lift her gaze further, Kaiden pressed her head down slightly.
Pressed deeper into his hold, Emilia spoke softly,
“You smell.”
“What smell are you referring to?”
Kaiden asked with unexpected seriousness, and Emilia laughed.
“I couldn’t say.”
It was the grateful scent of the wind clinging to a man who’d rushed home for her sake—for someone who was merely his contract marriage partner.

‘No!’
That hadn’t been a literal smell at all…
Since she’d clumsily dodged the question without explaining properly, Kaiden seemed to have assumed there was actually something strange smelling about him.
The moment they entered the Bedroom, he’d left her sitting on the Sofa and disappeared into the Bathroom, telling her to wait a moment.
‘But why the Bedroom and not the Office…?’
She’d naturally expected him to take her to his Study, but instead Kaiden had headed to his Bedroom without a second thought.
Emilia sighed softly and leaned back against the Sofa’s armrest.
Through the thick door, the faint sound of running water could be heard.
Emilia found herself in an odd mood and shook her head, glancing around the room.
The space felt composed and orderly overall; there didn’t seem to be any unnecessary decorations or furniture.
When her gaze landed on the bed, however—
She stiffened slightly.
It suddenly felt rude to observe someone else’s room so intently.
Growing awkward, she dropped her eyes, but the sound of water continued to flow.
‘When is he going to come out…?’
Maybe she should just escape to her room and return tomorrow.
‘Oh.’
But then Emilia remembered that her Slippers lay forlornly beneath the Garden bench.
She sighed again.
‘I give up.’
As time passed, the steady sound of water from the Bathroom began to feel like white noise.
And since she’d just come in from the cold wind outside into the warmth of the room, her body felt drowsy and languid.
Earlier, when she’d lain on the bed, sleep wouldn’t come at all.
Now, with her head growing increasingly heavy, Emilia leaned it against the Sofa’s armrest.
Sleep came pouring over her almost at once.

Moments later, the Bathroom door opened, and Kaiden checked toward the Sofa.
The back of a brown-haired head was not visible above the armrest.
Kaiden’s brow furrowed slightly.
‘Well.’
She wasn’t the type to wait patiently, after all.
Leaving her Slippers abandoned in the Garden no less, she’d apparently returned to her own room immediately.
With a low sigh, he shook off the water and moved toward the table—
Then suddenly stopped.
She was asleep on the Sofa, her body nestled deep into it.
‘…’
Kaiden’s gaze settled on her unguarded face.
It was quite a dangerous sight, in its way.
‘Should I wake her?’
After a moment of quiet deliberation, he finally lifted Emilia into his arms and laid her on the bed.
Gritting his teeth, he drew the blanket over her, and a droplet from his wet hair landed with a soft tap on her cheek.
“Mm.”
Emilia furrowed her brow in her sleep.
Then, unconsciously, she turned toward Kaiden and gripped his sleeve tightly in her fist.
A quiet laugh escaped him as he wiped away the water clinging to her cheek.
He found himself thinking: if only she showed even half this affection while awake, how satisfied he’d be.

Emilia’s eyes snapped open.
But an unfamiliar ceiling greeted her.
She stared blankly up at it, thinking.
‘Is it unfamiliar, or isn’t it?’
Because her own Bedroom ceiling had the same pattern, just in a different color.
Blink, blink.
Emilia blinked repeatedly before suddenly sitting up.
And there, sitting on the Sofa reviewing documents, was a man.
That was precisely where she should have been sitting.
Which meant…
Emilia realized at once that she had taken over someone else’s bed.
Her eyes widened in shock.
“W-why am I in the bed?”
“You fell asleep.”
Kaiden replied as if to say: what’s the problem?
At his matter-of-fact tone, Emilia’s mouth fell open slightly. Then, in bewilderment, she chided him,
“You should have woken me up!”
At that, Kaiden let out a low laugh.
“For whose benefit?”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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